kicksy-wicksy

adjective

Restless, fidgety.

Meanings

adjectivekicksy-wicksy (comparative more kicksy-wicksy, superlative most kicksy-wicksy)

comparative more kicksy-wicksy · superlative most kicksy-wicksy · alternative kicksy-winsey

  1. archaicRestless, fidgety.

    This kicksy wincy Giddibrain will spoil all. I’le no more Italian tricks.

    c. 1632 (written), Richard Brome, “The Covent-Garden Weeded”, in Five nevv Playes […], published 1659, page 17
    2 more examples

    True, she had her “kicksy-wicksy” days, as Sarell has said: days when it was “clear torment for her to lay still and keep herself out o’ things that she knew she could straighten out if she was only round amongst ’em”; […]

    1887, A. D. T. Whitney, Odd, or Even?, 14th edition, page 72

    It seems to me an ungrateful return for the favour of Providence to begin a gadding, kicksy-wicksy life the moment you have a little money in your pocket, as much as to say how wretched you had been before!

    1888, Matilda Betham-Edwards, The Parting of the Ways: A Novel, page 159

Origin

From kick + -sy and either wince or reduplication.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

kicksy-wicksy. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/kicksy-wicksy

MLA

“kicksy-wicksy.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/kicksy-wicksy. Accessed November 4, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “kicksy-wicksy,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/kicksy-wicksy.

Source: kicksy-wicksy on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.